SIXTEEN MILES ON THE C & D CANAL

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

Delaware must think it has four members in its
congressional delegation or two governors, it is kind of
hard to tell which.

There they were in a row, a high-powered lineup of
John Carney, Chris Coons, Mike Castle, Jack Markell and
Tom Carper, assembled Thursday afternoon along the
Chesapeake & Delaware Canal under the Saint Georges
Bridge.

They came to mark the start of the construction of a
joint federal-state project to create a recreational
trail stretching bay-to-bay from Delaware City to
Chesapeake City in Maryland.

Who got the most attention for these 16 miles on the
C & D Canal? Castle. It was eerie.

Castle, the Republican ex-congressman and
ex-governor, was the only one out of office. Nearly a
year after the Tea Party Republicans blew up politics
here by tossing him aside for Christine O'Donnell in the
Senate primary, the state is still in denial.

It was particularly apparent because the rest of them
-- Markell, the governor, and the federal delegation of
Carper and Coons, the two senators, and Carney, the
congressman -- are all Democrats, and they still invited
Castle.

"He was on everybody's list," Markell said.

Only in Delaware would an all-Democratic leadership
make room for a Republican gone from public life.
Especially if it meant sharing credit.

"People in the caucus inevitably ask me, who did I
follow in D.C.?" Carney said. "I say, Mike Castle.
Everybody to a person will say, oh Mike Castle, we love
Mike Castle. My own Democratic caucus!"

This may be the problem. If more Republicans had felt
that way, Castle would be a senator today instead of
Coons.

It was not window dressing to include Castle at this
event. As a congressman, he proposed the trail in 2004,
but back as far as his time as governor from 1985 to
1993, he worked on ways to get more people to more
outdoor spots.

"I had sort of sensed there just was not enough
recreation open land in Delaware then," he said.

Carper noted a historical link. Benjamin Franklin
envisioned a system of canals for the new Republic, and
Castle is his direct descendant. This is really true.

"People will come here. They will use it," Castle
said.

There was an old-time Philadelphia political boss
named Pete Camiel, a hard-boiled, crap-shooting,
chain-smoking Democrat who lived at an estate called
Fatlands -- no fooling -- and once said, "There is
nothing as useless as a former mayor, a former
officeholder, a former candidate, a former anything."